Jon La Brea
Sep 10, 2016
Yahoo on the hunt for patent thieves
Yahoo on the hunt for patent thieves | New York Post
Yahoo is channeling its inner patent troll. The internet giant is cracking down on companies that have been using its patents without permission as its seeks to sell off a big chunk of its patent portfolio. Yahoo has fingered about 140 companies that it believes are infringing on its patents and has started conversations with some of them, said a source close to situation. âThere are three things you say when someone tells you that you are infringing on a copyright,â the source said. âYour patents are invalid; the patents may be invalid and if theyâre not, then sue me; or letâs talk about a number.â Yahoo hired Black Stone IP to help it sell about 3,000 patents that cover a range of technologies including online payment services, mobile messaging, data mining and behavioral ad targeting. The patent trove, called Excalibur, is attracting interest from several tech players, including Amazon, Salesforce and Microsoft, the source said. But the estimated value of the portfolio varies widely â anywhere from $1 billion to $4 billion â in part because of questions about the strength of the patents. In July, TurboPatent released a report that suggested many of Yahooâs patents were too weak to enforce or were susceptible to a legal challenge. The report implied that the portfolio would fetch far less than the high end of the range.
Yahoo is channeling its inner patent troll. The internet giant is cracking down on companies that have been using its patents without permission as its seeks to sell off a big chunk of its patent portfolio. Yahoo has fingered about 140 companies that it believes are infringing on its patents and has started conversations with some of them, said a source close to situation. âThere are three things you say when someone tells you that you are infringing on a copyright,â the source said. âYour patents are invalid; the patents may be invalid and if theyâre not, then sue me; or letâs talk about a number.â Yahoo hired Black Stone IP to help it sell about 3,000 patents that cover a range of technologies including online payment services, mobile messaging, data mining and behavioral ad targeting. The patent trove, called Excalibur, is attracting interest from several tech players, including Amazon, Salesforce and Microsoft, the source said. But the estimated value of the portfolio varies widely â anywhere from $1 billion to $4 billion â in part because of questions about the strength of the patents. In July, TurboPatent released a report that suggested many of Yahooâs patents were too weak to enforce or were susceptible to a legal challenge. The report implied that the portfolio would fetch far less than the high end of the range.